The Ocean-Atmosphere System

II: Oceanic Heat Budget

C. Chen

General Physical Oceanography

MAR 555

School for Marine Sciences and Technology

Umass-Dartmouth
 MAR 555 Lecture 2: The Oceanic Heat Budget

Qs

Qb
Qh
Qe
Qv
Redistribute the heat

Qs: The short wave energy radiated from the sun (the shortwave radiation)
Qb: The net long-wave energy radiated back from the ocean (the longwave radiation);
Qe: The heat loss by evaporation (latent heat flux);
Qh: The sensible heat loss by conduction;
Qv: The heat transfer by currents (advection and convection)
Assuming that the ocean is a closed system, then the net heat flux at the sea
surface ΔQ equals to

!Q = Qs " Qb " Qe " Qh

Considering no global warming tendency, for a long-term averaging,

!Q = 0 QS = Qb + Qe + Qh

For a short-term, the net oceanic heat flux varies daily with diurnal variation
of solar radiation, etc. For the real ocean, due to the global warming,
!Q " 0

Question:

What are the physical processes controlling the heat flux?

 Qs: The shortwave radiation (unit: W/m2)

Observational results:

Only 51% of the sun’s shortwave radiation energy can get onto the
sea surface:

# 28% : directly from the sun after the reduction due to the cloud
51% $"
!23% : from sky radiation and longwave radiation of the atmosphere
S /4 S
!Tc4 !
4

Tc Cloud layer

!Tc4 (1 " ! )
S
4
Sea surface
Total energy received at the sea surface is

S
QS = QS1 (direct ) + Qs2 (indirect ) = (1 # " ) + !Tc4
4

The factors affecting Qs:

• The length of the day: varies with seasons and geographic latitude;
• The absorption of atmosphere (gas molecules, dust, water vapor);

• Effects of cloud: reduce the average amount of energy reaching the sea surface through
the absorption and scattering by the cloud)

Example 1:
Qs Qs
Shortest path Longer path

a) Minimum absorption b) Larger absorption

Example 2:

Empirical equation:
S
QSC = (1 ! 0.09c)
4
c: The proportion of cloud cover in the sky, which is estimated by an unit of eight divisions.

If the sky is completed covered by the cloud, c=8,

S S S
QSC = (1 " 0.09c) = (1 " 0.09 ! 8) = 0.28
4 4 4

In the real ocean, the distribution of Qs varies with latitude. The annual
averaged values:

$< 150 & 200 W/m 2 ' > 20 0 N

!
QS = # 200 & 255 W/m 2 - 20 o S % ' % 20 o N
! < 200 W/m 2 ' < -20 o S
"
Annually averaged Qs(W/m2)
 Question: Why is Qs larger on the continent than over the ocean?

Incoming solar radiation

(100 units)

Clear sky Scattering back to space

(-7 units)

Absorption in upper atmosphere Reflection from clouds

by ozone
to space (-45 units)
(-3 units)

Absorption in lower atmosphere by

water vapor and CO2
(-10 units)
Absorption in clouds
80 units (-10 units)

25 units
 Qb: The net long-wave radiation

All bodies with a temperature above absolute zero can emit radiation. The strength
of such an emission depends on body’s temperature: it is greater when the
temperature of the body is higher. Also, as the temperature of the body becomes
higher, the radiation spectrum is shifted toward shorter wavelengths.

In the real ocean, the energy emitted by the oceanic surface is estimated by a
black body with a sea-surface temperature Ts. The net upward longwave flux
Qb equals to the difference between sea and air longwave radiations, i.e.:

Qb = " (Ts4 ! Ta4 )

Ts: the water temperature at the sea surface

Ta: the air temperature at the sea surface
σ: Stenfan’s constant

Ta Air Sea surface

Ts Sea
 General evidences:
• Qb ~ 50 W /m2;
• As the cloud coverage becomes larger, Qb decreases. However, Qb
doesn’t change much for ice and water;

• Qb doesn’t change much either daily or seasonally because neither

sea temperature or relative humidity over the sea changes much in
these time scales.

• (QS ! Qb ) water > (Qs ! Qb ) ice , (Qs ! Qb ) low latitude > (Qs ! Qb ) high latitude

Qs is small at high latitude and large at low latitude

Small "Q = Qs ! Qb white Qb: does not change much with latitude

Large "Q = Qs ! Qb Equator

black

white
QS ! Qb
 Qh: Sensible heat loss

1) The water is much denser than the air

# air ~ 1.2 " 1.3 kg/m 3 , # sea water ~ 1.025 ! 10 3 kg/m 3

so,
!sea water The air-sea interface is very stable
~ 10 3 if only the density difference is considered
!air

However, the large temperature difference can cause a heat transfer from the warm
region to the cold region. Such a heat flux from the ocean is called sensible heat loss
or the heat loss by conduction.
Two conduction processes:
1) Molecular heat conduction; 2) Eddy (turbulent) diffusion

For the molecular case:

!T
Qh = "c p k
!z

k: the molecular conductivity of heat;

cp: the specific heat of the air at constant pressure
ΔT/Δz: the air temperature gradient at the sea surface

For the eddy case:

!T
Qh = $ a c pa w#T # (= "c pa Az )
!z

w" and T " are turbulent fluctuation of vertical air velocity and temperaute
! a is the air density, and c pa is the specific heat of the dry air
Az is the vertical eddy viscosity.
Example: Ta (high)

a) !T
> 0 , Qh < 0
!z

(low)
sea surface
The ocean gains heat

Ta (low)

!T
< 0 , Qh > 0
b) !z

high
sea surface
The ocean losses heat
 Qe: The heat loss by evaporation (latent heat flux)

The latent heat flux can be estimated by a formula as

Qe = ! a Le w'q '

w! and q ' are turbulent fluctuation of vertical air velocity and water vapor mixing ratio.
Le is the latent heat of evaporation of the sea water, which can be estimated as

Le = (2.501 " 0.00237Ts ) ! 10 6 J/kg

In the real estimation,

Qe = ! a Le u* q*

u* and T* are the Monin - Obukhov similarity scaling parameters of the frictional velocity,
air temperature fluctuation.
Annual Latent Heat (W/m2)
Annual Sensible Heat (W/m2)
Heat flux measurements at the sea surface
 Critical issues needed to be addressed in order to provide an accurate
estimation of Qe and Qh:

1) Determine accurately u* under various stable or unstable conditions of the

thermal structure in the near-sea atmosphere boundary;

2) Calculate accurately the air-sea temperature difference at the sea surface;

3) Estimate the contribution of precipitation to the surface cooling

Issue 1): u* depends on the sea surface roughness and wind speed. How to calculate the
roughness and take convective velocity into account?

Issue 2): The air temperature is measured at a certain height above the sea surface from the
metrological buoys and ships, how to determine the true interfacial air-sea temperature
difference?

Issue 3): The true interfacial air-sea temperature difference is sensitively influenced by the
precipitation. Since the heavy rainfall usually companies with an atmospheric frontal
passages, how to determine its contribution to the surface cooling?
Observational evidences:

a) The maximum Qe occurs on the west side of the ocean and winter because of the
existence of the west boundary warm current and large temperature gradient in
winter;

b) At mid-latitude in the western North Pacific Ocean, Qe is about 145 W/m2. In the
western North Atlantic, Qe is about 195 W/m2;

c) Qe and Qh are usually large during the storm passages.

 Relation between Qe and Qh
In the ocean, Qh and Qe depends on the air-sea temperature difference and
wind speed at the sea surface. These two fluxes are correlated each other and
their relationship can be given as

Qh = RQe

Where R is the so-called Bowen’s ratio, which is equal to

R = 0.062(Ts ! Ta ) /(e s ! ea )

es and ea are the sea water saturated vapor pressure and actual air vapor pressure.

Question:

Is this relationship always valid?

Example:

Scatter plot of Qsen versus Qlat for February 3-7 nor’easter (dot) and August 18-
23 tropic storm Felix (diamonds), 1995 (Beardsley et al. 2003).
The Gulf of Maine Buoy Sites
Simulated Assimilated
Short-wave

Long-wave

Latent

Sensible
Short-wave
Observed

SST
Long-wave

No SST

Latent

Sensible
 The TOGA/COARE (TC) heat flux algorithm developed by Fairall et al. (1996):

• More accurate skin water temperature;

• Better paramterization of surface roughness;
• More realistic vertical profiles for stable and unstable weather conditions
• Accountable wind gustiness
Annual net surface heat flux (W/m2) averaged over 1978-2004
Annual longwave heat flux (W/m2) averaged over 1978-2004
Annual latent flux (W/m2) averaged over 1978-2004
Annual sensible flux (W/m2) averaged over 1978-2004
Suggested papers:

1) Fairall, C. W., E. F. Bradley, D. P. Rogers, J. B. Edson, and G. S. Young, 1996. Bulk

parameterization of air-sea fluxes for tropic ocean global atmosphere coupled-ocean
atmospheric response experiment. Journal of Geophysical Research, 101(C2), 3747-3764.

2) Beardsley, R., S. Lentz, R. A. Weller, R. Limeburner, J. D. Irish, and J. B. Edson, 2003.

Surface forcing on the southern flank of Georges Bank, February-August, 1995. Journal of
Geophysical Research, 108, C11, 8007. Dot: 10.1029/2002JC001359.